Re: Burrokeet presentation

Ross Gardler wrote:

>
> It is no good starting from the point of "here is a solution, now lets 
> find the problem". If you don't have a clear understanding of a 
> problem before you start then there is nothing to start. I find it 
> quite strange that CIS seem to have had a meeting about how to present 
> Burrokeet before even deciding what it is CIS are going to do with it.

I don't mean to make it sound like CIS is trying to find a problem to 
fit the solution we have. The idea of using it for a school's website 
was an idea that Allan had put forward for awhile. My concern is that 
the approach that we are taking would be viewed by the school as pushing 
our tool rather than solving their problem. After the discussions 
yesterday I realise that as a developer on Burrokeet, I may be guilty of 
that. This is why I wanted to solidify our approach. If we are clear 
that we are solving a problem rather than pusing a tool then it will be 
easier for us to convey that to the school.

> OK, good, but isn't this where CIS were over 8 months ago? I was under 
> the (mistaken) impression that the problem had already been identified 
> and this meeting you were having was intended to show how Burrokeet 
> was the solution.
>
Well, we had already decided to approach them with the idea o the 
website but Allan expressed the concern that our presentations were a 
bit too technical for them. The idea was to find a way to present 
Burrokeet in a way that would not scare off the non-IT people at the 
school.

> Can it be effectively used for website maintenance? Does it provide 
> any benifit over something like Front Page or HomeSite? If it does 
> then what is it? The answer to this last question identifies the real 
> problem - which is why haven't the schools got websites already?

Well, the school has had the intention of building a website for a while 
now. Two years ago my cousin, whose daughter attends the school,  had 
asked me to give a small talk to the computer club on websites and they 
know what they wanted but they didn't have the skill. Their concept was 
a website where the content was created by the students. Even tools such 
as Homesite and Frontpage were still complicated for the students to use.

Form speaking to them then and now I gather that they have a good idea 
of the content that they want to put up. I believe that Allan is 
currently the one working on their site now so he can elaborate more on it.

The major advantage that Burrokeet has over Homesite and Frontpage is 
the fact that the students who are creating the content do not have to 
know anything about Burrokeet. They already have the skills they need 
which is the ability to create a document in a word processor. The 
students will be much more likely to contribute content since they can 
work in a familiar enviroment.

>
> Do they have someone technical? Can Burrokeet be altered to mean they 
> don't need that?
>
The believe that they do have someone technical to do that.

> [Burrokeet developer hat off] In other words, would the CIS Schools 
> websites project have a more chance of success if this functionality 
> was available in the solution provided? This should be part of the 
> problem specification, not the solution specification.
>
Yes, this functionality would definitely increase the chances of 
success. However, I believe that the person that they have now would be 
capable of generating the site and manually uploading it to the server.

>> Once we get them to do this, then they can explore the other features 
>> of Burrokeet and find their own applications for it.
>
>
> Why?
>
> Is this a CIS goal or a schools goal? You should be aiming at what the 
> schools want today, not at what they *may* want tomorrow. As a 
> Burrokeet developer I would love to see it being used in a more 
> productive way than a website development tool, but is it right for 
> the schools at this stage?
>
I don't think I put that accross properly. I totally agree with your 
points. I agree that Burrokeet can be used more productively. I just 
don't want to overload them with too much information at once. Once we 
get them working with the site, we can introduce them to new 
applications. However I would like to introduce it to them in a way that 
would not make it look like we were forcing it on them. I think we could 
get better results if we plant the ideas of how Burrokeet can be used 
and let them explore the ideas themselves.

>
> Spend time on the problem *before* spending time on the solution. I 
> have to admit that I thought you already identified the problem, but 
> it seems that Anil is trying to get agreement on that in this email, 
> thus implying that it hasn't been done before.

The intial problem definied was that of providing a website for the 
school. Burrokeet was identified as a good tool for that job with the 
potential of becoming much more. The discussion was intended to be about 
presenting Burrokeet to staff at the school in a manner that would not 
be too technical and scare them off.  After the discussions, I think 
that the approach that we should take should focus on the website in a 
way that would make it look less like were were pushing a tool and more 
like we were solving a problem. I just want to see if we all agree on 
this approach.

Anil.


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